I just spent $55 on shoes for no particularly important reason. At least I got four pairs for that money because they were from Payless and probably poor quality to match the low prices. I don’t wear leather, and I don’t plan to wear the shoes for more than a year or two, so it’s not like I really need high quality ones to pass down to my children or anything. I bought them online with free shipping, and if I decide I don’t want them I can return them to the nearest Payless store for a complete refund.

Listen to all that defensive rationalizing. Why should I feel the need to justify my purchase? Hooray for new shoes!

I went to Old Navy this evening to use the $100 gift card that The Boyfriend gave me for my birthday. Part of the birthday present was to pay attention to me the whole time we were there, by holding my purse and things while waiting for me to try things on, offering opinions about every article of clothing I considered, and patiently waiting no matter how long I wanted to look at clothes. I ended up with two new pairs of nice trousers, two button-down office shirts, and four tank tops that are exactly like all my other tanks tops in slightly new colors, and I only used the gift card for $43 of it. I had a 20% off coupon for anything that I charged to my Old Navy credit card, so I decided to actually buy most of the clothes with actual money instead of the gift card because I could get the discount on those things while prolonging the experience of the gift card to another day.

Attached to this clothes-buying spree is a plan to prune the contents of my closet. I have quite a few things that are unflattering, torn or stained, ugly, or that simply don’t fit very well anymore since I’ve lost some weight in the past year or two. My theory is that I should like and wear everything I own. Why have days when it’s, “Darn, I’m down to the end of the laundry and I have to wear those pants with the underwear I hate and an awkwardly fitting shirt”?

I got my hair cut yesterday and I like it. I requested something a little shorter and dramatic than I had it before, and specifically referenced the Future Girl haircut that many women have in movies. Two separate people told me that it looks like Starbuck from “Battlestar Galactica” so I think it was successful. I’ll put a picture of it up as soon as I have one.

Buying all the half-price canned mandarin oranges except for two cans, in case somebody else wanted some

Listening to Boyfriend tell how I was taking up the whole bed when he finally came to bed at 2 a.m., and how he had to roll me over to have space for himself, and how I had somehow wrapped the sheets around my waist like a belt and made angry-sounding noises at him when he tried to gently place the covers over me after he sorted them out. I don’t remember this at all. I sleep very soundly – perhaps too soundly. Maybe I’ll tell a couple sleepwalking stories next time…

The youngest one, Brooke, was sent home in the week before last’s show on the same night that would have been her high school graduation. I disagree with the judges’ choice because both Jaeda and Eugena are still left and they both need to go because really, they’re just not so good. Jaeda is all whiny about being given a really short haircut during the makeover episode even though she started out by saying, “Cut all my hair off, whatever, it grows fast” before she knew that they actually were going to cut it off, and then she cried during the actual haircut. Eugena is just really bland. As soon as I watch the episode from last Wednesday I can go to the website to watch extra clips and such, but I’m one episdoe behind so I can’t do that yet without ruining the suprrise of who is eliminated. (Hopefully Jaeda or Eugena!)

Today was a good birthday. My manager decorated my cubicle, my boyfriend sent flowers to the office and took me out to dinner for Thai food, one of my brothers made a birthday cake when I was expecting to go without one, I received an email from my mom and a good friend who is currently in Lebanon, I talked to my friend from college and got a funny voicemail message from my best friend from Minnesota while I was talking to the first friend, and my dad called to say “happy birthday”. I opened my presents that included a $100 gift card to Old Navy, a pretty ceramic quiche/pie dish, a pile of rubber snakes that I had about ten years ago that my mom apparently decided to give back to me after I left them at her house when I moved away from home, a 3 1/2 pound bag of candy, and 11 grapefruit spoons with a pointy tip and serrated edge.

The spoons freaked me out because just a couple weeks ago I bought a few grapefruits and I said to my cohabitator, “I sure wish I had some grapefruit spoons, like the ones my mom has. They make eating it so easy and fun! Maybe I’ll buy myself some of those, or ask her to mail some extras to me.” And for my birthday she just sent me 11 of them (she said to distribute the extras to my brothers). Did I tell her about wanting the spoons? I can’t remember doing so but how else would she know to send them? I must have told her, right? And with words and not just “mind bullets” as has been so helpfully suggested. As much as I would like to think that I was involved in some kind of pyschic connection it’s more likely that I simply don’t remember the conversation we had about my desire for grapefruit spoons.

OkCupid’s politics test has branded me a socialist, thank goodness. Democrat I could accept as well, but what if it said that I’m a Capitalist, Libertarian or, god forbid, Republican? Glad to see I’m still doing alright. Also, Hot or Not has determined that I am 8.6 Hot (or at least that one particular picture of me, wearing sunglasses and leaning up against the slanted window of a boat, is 8.6 Hot. Other pictures have scored consistently worse). How would I determine my identity and self-worth without the internet?

80% socially permisssive, 21% economically permissive

The tables and graphs aren’t functioning properly when I put them in this blog so and you’ll have to take the test yourself to see what the graphs look like and where those numbers fit. http://www.okcupid.com/politics